How To Create The Sound

Of Christmas Bells & Chimes On Your Piano 

Good morning. This is Duane, and Christmas is right around the corner, when I’m recording this at least, although you may be watching it in the summer. In any case, I’d just like to show you one cool technique that you can use to create the sound of Christmas bells & chimes on your piano.

You can create the sound of chimes by playing whatever the melody is in octaves but using two hands. Under the right hand octave put in a fourth. Under the left hand note put in a sixth. You have that sound, and then you play it percussively. Jump off the note but keep your damper pedal depressed. See that? It even sounds better I think if you play it higher.

Now when I say keep the damper pedal depressed I mean you press it down as you strike the note and hold it until you play the next note. Don’t keep it down all the time because it gets really blurry, unless you want that effect. There is a time for that effect though if you’re really imitating the sounds of chimes.

You can create a low bell, kind of a bell-like sound, by playing it … If you’re in the key of C then play the C chord and roll it from the bottom, but include the second note, like so. You’re going to roll it from the bottom like that. Your left hand is going to play an octave with the fifth [inaudible 00:01:42], a root note with the fifth [inaudible 00:01:42]. It’s like this.

That’s all there is to it. To get the chime sound you play the melody in octaves but using two hands. Under the right hand melody put in a fourth, one two three four. Under the left hand melody note put in a sixth. You have that combination of sixths and fourths. Then play it percussively and keep your damper pedal depressed either all the time or each time that you play a note like so. For example, if I played the “I Heard The Bells,” you can get a very authentic sound that way.

Again, the left hand is done … You push the pedal down also. Your left hand plays the root fifth and your right hand rolls the C chord or whatever chord it is. If you’re playing E flat of course you’d roll the E flat chord using the second like so, and play it percussively.

Okay, that’s it for today. Short little lesson but it’s a technique that you may want to put in your tool box. Thanks for being with me and we’ll see you treatment with a another piano arranging idea. Bye bye for now.